In AT&T & T-Mobile Merger, Everybody Loses

The lull of my lazy, rainy weekend was broken by the news that AT&T (s t) plans to acquire T-Mobile USA for a whopping $39 billion in cash and stock. Who wins and who loses in this deal? It’s hard to find winners, apart from AT&T and T-Mobile shareholders. Here is a list of who loses, in my opinion, in this deal:

Consumers. The biggest losers of this deal are going to be the consumers. While AT&T and T-Mobile are going to try to spin it as a good deal to combine wireless spectrum assets, the fact is, T-Mobile USA is now out of the market.

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T-Mobile USA has been fairly aggressive in offering cheaper voice and data plans as it has tried to compete with its larger brethren. The competition has kept the prices in the market low enough. This has worked well for U.S. consumers. With the merger of AT&T and T-Mobile, the market is now reduced to three national players: AT&T, Verizon (s vz) and Sprint (s S). Net-net, U.S. consumers are going to lose.

Phone Handset Makers. Before the merger was announced, the handset makers such as HTC and Motorola (s Mmi) had two major carriers who could buy their GSM-based phones. They just lost any ability to control price and profits on handsets because now there is a single buyer that can dictate what GSM phones come to market. Even with LTE becoming the standard for the 4G world, it would essentially be a market dominated by three buyers (should Sprint go with LTE), which would place handset makers at the mercy of the giants.

Sprint. The nation’s third-largest carrier was in talks to buy T-Mobile according to Bloomberg, but AT&T’s offer has now pushed Sprint to the bottom of the pile in terms of size and potentially spectrum assets if it goes through. If it doesn’t go through, then Sprint now has a price it has to match in order to get its hands on T-Mobile. Plus, Sprint and T-Mobile often stood against AT&T and Verizon on a variety of regulatory issues, so if AT&T succeeds, Sprint will stand alone on special access and other issues.

Network Equipment Suppliers. The carrier consolidation has proved to be a living hell for companies that make infrastructure network equipment. Alcatel-Lucent (s alu), along with Ericsson (s ERIC) and Nokia Siemens (s nok) (s si), are suppliers of gears to both AT&T and T-Mobile USA. With a single customer, they will lost ability to control their own fate and are going to see their profits suffer as a result.

Google. I think the biggest loser in this could be Google (s GOOG). In T-Mobile, it has a great partner for its Android OS-based devices. Now the company will be beholden to two massive phone companies — Verizon and AT&T — who are going to try to hijack Android to serve their own ends.

Don’t be surprised if you see AT&T impose its own will on what apps and service are put on its Android smartphones. I wouldn’t be surprised to see the worst phone company in the U.S. (according to Consumer Reports) tries to create its own app store and force everyone to buy apps through it.

It doesn’t matter how you look at it; this is just bad for wireless innovation, which means bad news for consumers. T-Mobile has been pretty experimental and innovative: It has experimented with newer technologies such as UMA, built its own handsets and has generally been a more consumer-centric company. AT&T, on the other hand, has the innovation of a lead pencil and has the mentality more suited to a monopoly: a position it wants to regain.

…Oh, and…
I fled Sprint for AT&T’s iPhone. The customer service at AT&T is wonderful compared to the Sprint tech support cesspool.

If AT&T gets more spectrum, bandwidth and towers (with a little larger footprint) out of this, it will be a win for customers.

Only Net Neutrality would have saved consumers on prices, by not allowing these companies to throttle bandwidth so that can charge based on usage.

I’d argue the industry NEEDS more consolidation and I’d like to see Verizon and Sprint merge. I’d also like to see the government REQUIRE that all next-generation phones be multi-carrier devices if this or future deals are to be approved.

End carrier phone exclusivity, market phones with multiple cell radios like Apple is preparing to do and consolidation makes sense. That is what will force carriers to compete on price.

I doubt Verizon and Sprint would merge anytime soon because of the fact that Vzn is implementing a LTE 4G infastructure as opposed to Sprint’s WiMax 4G, which are not compatible with each other.

I agree that phones should not be carrier-exclusive. It would be better to be able to pick your phone, then pick the carrier that suits you. I think this will be more of a possibility in the future, since three of the four major carriers have chosen to persue the LTE 4G infastructure for the future.

As for the government Requiring things, in a more free market with less gov regulation imposed, everyone wins.

Several years ago an IOS update broke voice mail service for people using an iPhone on T-Mobile. TMO rushed to push out an update to their VM system. Anyone think AT&T would do that? It took years for them to enable mms on the iPhone!

From scratch? The money, the permits, the backbone. Maybe even the regulatory oversight. Just not going to happen. Unless you know of a different wireless scheme that doesn’t involve highspeed lines to various spread out towers, I don’t see how this will be possible.

Industry innovation should be just fine. After all, it was AT&T that threw out old business principles and brought us the iPhone (Verizon wasn’t going to do it). And you forget that LightSquared’s hybrid terrestrial/satellite (LTE) cell network will soon come online. Then, we’ll be right back to four major U.S. carriers. From what I’ve read, LightSquared will turn the industry upside down.

Thanks for a great summary of what’s bad about this acquisition. I’ve been on the losing end of an AT&T buyout before and quickly discovered that the company seems to actually be proud of their horrible customer service. They still have that “We’re the phone company – we don’t have to care what you think” attitude that I remember from before the breakup.

I switched to T-Mobile because of their low prices and great customer service. If past experience is any guide, both will soon be a memory.

I am not happy with this. T Mobile has a better network, better customer service, better plans, better everything, and is Android HQ. This is a bad deal for the customers, and manufacturers. For the few T Mobile users who want an iPhone, they see this as good, but read that fine print *shakes head*. This probably means I will be moving to Verizon when the contract I just renewed is up.

Actually, Microsoft made headlines when it said it wanted to be the best mobile OS provider for the “Carriers”. Not consumers, carriers. Bet on it that MS will bend over backwards and offer great value to ATT and Verizon to discount Android, which anyway is screwing up because of all the bloatware these carriers are dumping on it.
Actually, Om, here I can see a very clear winner: Evil.

I see no bias whatsoever, just pure analytics. And not found anywhere else so far in this late breaking development. And poo on those that things the views in this article are from the vantage point of just being hateful of AT&T. Since Verizon got the iPhone, The mother of all phone monopolies has been scheming to take back some of Big V’s mojo. AT&T remains the most dissatisfying of all the major carriers, and adding more bulk to it’s hull isn’t going to improve it at all.

I have heard Om on TWiT and, while he makes some valid points about the supplier-buyer relationships (though as others have noted, the world is bigger than the US), he definitely comes across a bona fide AT&T hater. He titles the article as everyone losing when AT&T clearly wins, AT&T’s customers likely win as the additional spectrum from T-Mobile will be beneficial to expanding network capacity, and T-Mobile can be said to win as well given legitimate questions about their long-term viability. Om is entitled to his opinion and I don’t discount some of the valid points, but I do think you have to take this article with a grain of salt.

This merger will be a nightmare for att already way too congested network, I think the company who will benefit the most from this merger will be VZW, their plans are now cheaper than at&t’s, att is only cheaper if u don’t text and verizon is still offer unlimited data on a faster more reliable network. Customer service is far better than what u get with at&t, and even diehard apple fanatics still get what they want

I don’t think some people know what the word “bias” means. If you don’t agree with their opinion, then you must be “biased”.

Bias means “prejudice in favor of or against one thing, person, or group compared with another, usually in a way considered to be unfair.” Regardless of whether the author of this article is biased (which I doubt) or not, he has articulated his reasons for his opinion. If you believe that his articulated reasons are wrong, counter his reasoning with pertinent facts, logic or reasoning of your own. Don’t simply tell me to disregard rational arguments just because they might have come from a potentially biased source. Make your case.

Om – couldn’t agree more. While I am an iPhone user (mainly), I also keep a Nexus One for development as well as to use when I need a reliable carrier in those certain iPhone hating markets (SF, for example).

TMo has been great in terms of customer service. Easy to set up, easy to get unlock codes, friendly and informative. The only saving grace on the AT&T is having a business account (they are a bit friendlier/knowledgable) and when there is a hardware issue, the Genius Bar.

I’m waiting to see what AT&T will try and impose on those accounts that have TMo unlimited data and tethering…

Since AT&T has unlimited data plans, and tethering plans are available, why should there be any change? Tethering plans are almost never unlimited anyway… even my T-mobile aircard has a data threshold. They just throttle when I reach it, although given their normal data speeds, I wonder just how slow they’ll actually make me.

AT-T did away with the unlimited plans when Apple wasn’t going to let them sell the I-Phone if they didn’t. The plans were supposed to be locked in on the smart phones, but then they reclassified what a smart phone was, so nothing was locked in. Unlimited will only be available on non-smart phones.

I agree that the customer service is better as a business customer. However, they also just jacked up my rates as a business consumer so much that we switched everyone in the company to a personal plan to save cost.

I agree I have been with Tmobile when they bought over Voicestream. I stuck with them because the packages were consumer friendly and the customer service was and still is the best. I have had experience with ATT and they have the I dont care what you think about me attitude, even in the customer service. NOTHING GETS RESOLVED ONLY PUSHED TO THE SIDE!

But in THIS part of the world we are supposed to have a government that protects the consumer against abuses of monopolistic companies. I have been a customer of this company since 1997, and I have been perfectly satisfied with practically ALL of my experience in those years.

I’ve been with TMO since they came to town in the 90s too. I tried AT&T just fir the iPhone for a month and though the phone was cool, the phone service stunk! I don’t care how mant features my cell phone has, I heed one that works well as a phone! I also use UMA and the stupid AT&T people told me the iPhone would also do it. Bottom line, they didn’t even know what it was! I’ll be so sad to see TMO go away.

Actually, it sucks for a lot of T-Mobile customers who chose the carrier specifically because they were not AT&T. By that I mean that T-Mobile offers great customer service, fairly priced plans, and hasn’t been a complete control freak about devices on their network.

I don’t know why people are so worried about the prices of service…AT&T has very reasonably priced plans, I’ve had all carriers and tmobile was good but their phones sucked! I’m glad if the merger goes thru, I see this as everyone WINNING!!! booo to verizon for being so darned expensive and still have dropped calls!

I have AT&T for my high speed internet at my house because I have no other decently priced option, and I HATE having to call customer service.
T-mobiles customer service is FANTASTIC. I’ve called about any number of things from number ports to misbehaving phones and they’ve always helped me.

I can’t even get to someone at AT&T who understands how a DSL line actually WORKS, and knows what I’m talking about when I tell them the line syncs, but I’m getting no data.

This is going to be awful for T-mobile customers. Maybe the feds will disallow it, but I doubt it.

T-Mo is losing subs at an alarming rate and their parent company has publically stated that they needed to show the abilityt to stand on their own. Guess what, it isn’t going to happen! So look at the alternatives, sell to a cash rich company with like technology. Or sell to Sprint. Please refer to Nextel merger. You tell me what makes the most sense.

If Google looses is Apple winning? My guess is that the two major ones(T, VZ), will play MS/Nokia against Android(good timing on MS part to have a chance to get a food in the door,bing mobile search,…). I don’t think they will try and push Apple around to much.
Maybe two/three winners:
Apple
MS/Nokia

I’ll add Apple as a winner here as well. If the deal goes through, suddenly T-Mobile’s customers will be able to buy the iPhone and Motorola, Samsung, HTC, and the rest will have fewer potential customers.

Android phones today are still surpassing iphone. Iphone is limited and the android phones are more open. A merger like this would give many people a choice for the phone that they want, but i doubt it would help the iphone out. My opinion i have had att and tmobile they both suck, but if i had to choose i would have tmobile. Tmobile has cheaper plans and cooler phones than the iphone. Now they both suck because with both i have experianced a lot of droped calls more with att. I had sprint and recently switched to att and i had way more droped calls than sprint. Now I currently have virginmobile which is owned by sprint and just pay 40 dollars a month for 1200 minutes and unlimited text, web, email and data. I currently have the samsung intercept running android os. My dad has a iphone and i can do far more on my prepaid phone for 40 a month vs his billed iphone on att were he pays 60 a month for 200 minutes 200mb of data and 1000 text. My opinion is sprint billed and prepaid will win because they have cheaper plans and better phones. Plus att network 3g is already on the verge of a crash do to all the data the iphone uses therfore a lot of people will jump ship and switch to sprint, prepaid sprint services or verizon. Att is going to crush tmobile and hurt their self in the long run.

Choices make for competition in price, service and breadth. Monopolies create high prices little choice and poor service.ATT customer service falls further when this goes through. AAPL becomes a winner here with more distribution with tmobile customer base. Overall duopololies and monopolies have never been good for the consumer. Five years ago Microsoft own the operating system market. Today osx linux and others are talking share. That change was a result of competition not consolidation.

Not to be crude, it means you’d better start looking for another job. One, At&T will axe many jobs in the buyout anyway, and two they certainly wouldn’t want to waste money employing T-mobile CSRs that waste time and energy winning countless JD Power and Associates Customer Service awards.

If you’re like most of the T-Mo customer service reps I have talked to, you’re probably too nice and too helpful to work for ATT. Learn how to be rude and uncaring about customers, and you will probably move up at ATT. But wait to make sure the deal goes through, just in case.

@skylark – Think freely about joining a union? Don’t you mean “you will almost certainly be forced into becoming a union shop?”

I was with AT&T at the Cingular merger, and there was no viable option to keep the union vote from passing. With the horrible benefits package changes and other considerations, a large majority of call center employees felt compelled to vote for the union :(

Ive been with att. For like 5 years and never had a problem with there csr. Will not switch to any other carrier. Had sprint never again. Seen what my brother had to deal with at big red. Ill stay where im at. U might feel different but that’s how I feel

If you work at T-Mobile then you know what it means for you. Some T-Mobile employees are saying that T-Mobile is raising all the performance levels so it’s almost impossible to meet, so they can fire “at will” a large percentage of the employees as the merger is solidified. Why? Because it was said that T-Mobile doesn’t want to pay anyone unemployment benefits. If you happen to survive the mass firing, I heard that the T-Mobile severance package includes some unusual stipulations that you have to sign. If you survive to that point, be sure and read it carefully before signing.
As usual, the big companies get bigger and gain control of consumer prices/services by swallowing up the competition; the lobbyists get wealthier as they host the cheap version of “Let’s Make A Deal” with the political decision makers; and the common working man/woman gets the shaft. It’s business as usual in the good ole’ USA. Sad beyond definition!

the next shoe to drop will be the VZW-Sprint deal which i wager is already under way – the US will then have 2 nationwide carriers: GSM Ma Bell (at&t+tmo) and CDMA Pa Bell (VZW+Sprint) – with a sprinkle of regional and niche carriers.

Actually, I think we’re just as likely to see one of the following deals:
1. VZW/Sprint
2. Vodafone sells their VZW stake and uses the cash to buy Sprint
3. Sprint raises some new money and goes on a buying spree (Clearwire, Leap, MetroPCS, and perhaps a couple of others).

Sprint is one of the primary supporters of MVNOs, which provide many options to consumers in the US. I believe that regulators would have a much harder time to approve a VZW/Sprint deal than they will with the ATT/TMo deal.

This is exactly the reason and scenario I am with T-Mobile. I started with them with the Sidekick, but then, was given an older Nokia phone by my dad that was on AT&T and AT&T wanted a one for less service and horrible customer interaction.

T-Mobile was able to unlock the phone so I could use other European carrier SIM cards and gave me a great plan that fit my needs. I moved all my service to T-Mobile from Sprint which was absolutely painful to deal with and data cards and phones that didn’t work or fell apart.

Although I switched to ATT from TMobile (better rates due to company ties, and iPhone), TMobile’s service is immaculate.

I struggle to convince ATT reps to allow me to use an unlocked smartphone on my ATT line. My fallback phone is an unlocked TMobile phone (not a smartphone) that TMobile reps unlocked within minutes of my requesting.

@rouvex Actually he is correct. AT&T cannot offer the unlock code for iPhone because it is in the contract with Apple (the true evil empire) that they cannot give out the information.

Because Apple and AT&T have been in bed so long, people are confusing the customer service with regard to the iPhone with customer service at AT&T. We at AT&T are not able to help with the iPhone even though you bought it from us because to the T&C of the contract with Apple. Go try to get your Verizon iPhone serviced at a VZW Corporate Store. You will get the same crappy service.

This is the one area that can easily be remedied by government regulation as a price for approving the merger — all phones on the new AT&T – T-Mobile monster must be sold unlocked. If Italy can do it, so can we.

Unfortunatly, you are incorrect in your assessment that T-Mobile is the only US Carrier to happily give unlock codes for phones. AT&T will freely give out unlock codes for anything EXCEPT the iPhone. I know this from my own experience. You call, you ask for the MPE code for your phone, give them your IMEI, and they give you the unlock code and the model specific instructions for how to do it!

Bad journalism? IT’S TRUE, and even still, it’s an opinion piece as previously stated. And as for being against ATT WHY NOT? They’re more expensive, offer less services and features, and for god sake they just SUCK. ConsumerReports.org ranked ATT horribly according to a satisfaction survey of 58,000 ATT users. ATT was the lowest-scoring carrier in the US. ATT was the only carrier to drop significantly in overall satisfaction! I’ve been in the technology industry for many years and the cell phone industry specifically for most of them; This merge SCARES ME!

Most of us stopped believing Consumer Reports years ago because they only take input from their subscribers which is not a statistically valid sample of the US population.
The bad reputation some people still associate with AT&T dates back three years to a decade or more. During the last two years, AT&T expanded its number of towers, went 3G and was the first to allow a smart phone manufacturer to largely control how its devices operate on a network. The consensus is that AT&T has the fastest network. And, of course, it has simultaneous data and voice for smart phones. T-Mobile customers who remain at AT&T long enough to test it will likely stay.
By the way, AT&T’s customer turn over rate is the same as Verizon’s: about 1.3%

Thi s article maybe biasd, but its right its bad for consumers. I’ve got a landline from att and they just jacked rates nearly 50%. They will do the same for cellphone plans. Have you heard why att’s network sucks…too many users. Att will charge more for less service with this.

Arik, unfortunately there are many who cannot go to Verizon because they need phones that reliably function outside of the US on business and personal trips. Those of us who need GSM/UMTS phones either have to buy a second device for use abroad, or suck up whatever this new combined company gives us.

MCI (aka Verizon) had done the same to me, and that was reason enough to quit my landline. I am perfectly satisfied with my HTC phone on T-Mobile. AT&T screwed with my bills when it was Bell South, so I don’t do business with them, either. Om is correct; everyone loses … IF this merger is approved.

Dale, not sure if you were aware but Verizon does offer several models that also work on the GSM network… Mot. Droid 2, Droid Pro, BB Bold, Storm 1 and 2, and 2 basic flip phones… So really u get the best of both worlds with VZW.

I believe you must of finished your introductory rate on emergency service only landline… AT&T has not raised the price of homephones in nearly 5 years, and the only price difference in landline is u-verse vs. non-u-verse… otherwise same price.

you said to many users so to me that means lots of people like the service. I have att and at points is does have it problems but over all it is good. I think that with this merger would improve the current service for all ATT and T-mobie’s users.

I agree! Every time AT&T has acquired a phone company that I had service with the service went down hill, the cost went up and they find some way to completely screw up the account i.e. leave an account open after I closed it and tried to charge me for it. AT&T isn’t good for ANYBODY!!!

My husband had an iPhone with AT&T and He owed $200 on his bill and couldn’t pay it.. So he shut it off hoping he wouldn’t get charged anymore
He now has a $500 dollar bill and It’s been 3 months since the shut off… I go through T-Mobile and I have the MyTouch 4g (which I love btw) and my sister has a line on my bill too which is also and android phone,I have to pay $215 a month and I really hope my bill won’t get any higher and my plan won’t suck either and I can’t switch companies for almost 2 years…. I’m screwed… lol

Competition is always good for consumers ,it’s the same reason we get great prices on appliances and electronics , cars ect …so if you reduce the preseure on the phone co’s to compete prices will no doubt pay higher prices . and thousandes of people being out of work is never a good idea no matter how manny workers are there as far as verizion goes there prices are kinda high anyway so we then have less choices and thats never good.
and you just know if t mobile had a better product att will just flush it away as in the casr of the aiwa sony merger for thoes of us who remember.

You have nerver lied it will be all bad as a collector for at&t you are fucked if this go though think what you want LOL but at&t will never any kind of business. Of mine I wouldn’t let my dog do business with if I had one LOL that is how fucked you are going to be…. I will be calling you to collect those debts l to funny

It’s not gonna be ok. IT’s going to give ATT a monopoly on GSM service in the US. It’s going to eliminate the only option for consumers to buy an unlocked, unsubsidized contract-free phone. It’s going to lower the overall level of customer service in the industry. As a T-mo user, I already have a great phone.

I’m also not so sure about the upgrade to ATT’s network. T-Mo’s 3G service operates on different frequencies than ATT’s, and it will be difficult for ATT to market phones if they only run on one band or the other. Nobody really makes phones that run on both networks, so ATT will either abandon T-Mo’s 3G network, or completely confuse and frustrate customers (as if they don’t do that now) with a service plan that will not work with all devices.

Eh, isn’t the whole point of buying an unlocked, unsubsidized phone is that you can do it without giving a penny to the carrier? I bought my phone from Newegg and put my 5+ year old SIM card in it. AT&T couldn’t eliminate this option even if they wanted to, because that’s how GSM works.

There are phone(s) that run on both AT&T and T-Mobile 3G (ahem, 4G) bands. There aren’t more because T-Mobile is too small. With new combined company size there will be 130 million more incentives for manufacturers to make 850/1700/1900/2100 phones.

If you don’t like AT&T, don’t use them. There are other wireless carriers. If the other carriers don’t offer the phone(S) you like, purchase another phone. Some of you act like you are entitled to wireless service. It’s like anything else you purchase.

att’s plan is to take t-mobile and use their system to update their own and disban t-mobile and eliminate competition. they run on the same 700mhz wavelength but t-mobile was a threat to att and as such are eliminating the threat.

when 700 mhz went on the market, att bought 90% and t-mobile bought 10%. att was still trying to update their system, t-mobile already had an updated system that could handle better service.

Tmobile has a great phone in the Galaxy S Vibrant. And Tmobile has been the only domestic carrier to update the Galaxy S phone to Android to 2.2 aka the infamous Froyo. I hope they don’t lose their current edge.

Let’s not got overboard. The upgrade process to Froyo on the Vibrant is horrible – it needs to be done through the Samsung Kies program, which barely works. Oh and did I mention the upgrade can’t happen through a 64-bit PC?

Better shovel out that Windows Vista desktop.

T-Mobile isn’t perfect, guys. I’ve been with them for 8 years and they’ve slapped mysterious fees and dropped many-a-call during my time there. Sure, it’s cheap as hell, but it ain’t perfect. Half the time, I don’t complain about lousy network connection and 3G coverage because of how cheap it is.

On top of that, outside the Galaxy series (which every carrier supports), T-Mobile barely has any big name phones. Maybe the Nexus S, but its Best Buy exclusivity really hinders that. As a phone though, it’s up there with the best.

I think now that AT&T bought the little guy, we have our nostalgia glasses on. As far as bills go, this is probably very bad news, as my fees are most likely going to shoot up. No more unlimited data or tethering. But it’ll just be another speed bump in what’s been an already-rocky road.

Yea I’ve been a tmobile customer for 7 years. Greatest customer service ever, and discounts on every bill I’ve had. N also much better phone selection. New my touch 4g blows the iPhone away in my opinion.

Seriously? You think it will all be fine and dandy? The last time I had AT&T they tried to f**k me up the a$$ with no Vaseline! First they overcharged me for their most useless phone that they no longer supported. Then they tried to charge me $160 a month for 400 minutes and 500 texts? The plan I signed up for said that was $45 a month, which is still ridiculously high. I canceled my contract after only 3 months of intermittent service (at best). The cancellation fee was my cheapest bill from them! As well as the one I was happiest to pay. AT&T is nothing more than a blood-sucking tick. It should be doused in alcohol and burned off the ass of the wireless community.

You better go study some antitrust history. VZ more than likely won’t lower prices. They have that ability now, yet they keep them up. Actual cost of a customer is about 30 percent of what they charge. THe only thing that could make this work is if the regulators break the handset/service requirement.

What’s phones does art have over tmobile? The icrap? That’s the only one I can think of. All the others have versions on tmobile with only cosmetic differences. And incase you havnt noticed who gets the exclusive google phones? That would be tmoble with the nexus one and nexus s
Alsowho got the first galaxy s phone? Oh that’s right tmobile.

no way,,,,,att sucks and always will,,,I am an expert on att after having been one of their customers since 1981. Now all I have is a dry loop internet dsl and they cant even get my bill right. I have been with 2 companies that att bought and the service got worse and 1 company that bought att (cingular),,,then service got really BAD. I think all of cingular’s crappy employees stayed and made policies to be the worst company on the planet,,,,(they win—-go Charlie Sheen)